Restaurant’s alcohol rap

A restaurant received a slap on the wrist by the town’s licensing bosses for serving alcohol to an underage teenager.

East West in Friar Street, which opened in May last year, had its licence reviewed after it was caught selling a pint of lager to a 16-year-old boy in a test purchase operation by Thames Valley Police and Reading Borough Council trading standards in December.

Owner Shing Mak was told he would not be so lucky next time and had a number of conditions added to his licence, including the installation of CCTV outside the premises and full training for staff.

He must also join Reading’s PubWatch scheme and ensure customers do not take alcoholic drinks, or other drinks, from the premises.

East West was visited by Reading Borough Council officers in August after a member of the public complained youths were being served alcohol at the bar without ordering food.

Officers noted a number of individuals in the premises appeared to be underage but no formal identification process was carried out.

Following this the restaurant failed the test purchase but it has since passed a more recent test.

Defending Mr Mak, licensing consultant Bill Donne said: “We are quite surprised to be having this licence taken into review as the guidelines suggest there needs to be two strikes before a review, although in this case there is only one.

“We hope it is taken into account that extensive steps have since been taken in training and we have recently passed a second test purchase.”

Councillor Jeanette Skeats, who chaired the licensing applications sub-committee at the Civic Centre on Tuesday, said: “I have a warning to give you that we take the protection of children from harm very seriously.

“You have failed a test purchase and we would ask that you do not sell alcohol to underage people in the future. We really do want you to get your act together, we have a zero tolerance on this.

“We do not want to see you back here again because next time you may not be so lucky.”